Why medication reminders fail on Android, and how to make sure yours rings
Most missed reminders are not the app forgetting. The phone put it to sleep to save battery. Here is the switch to change on each brand, and a two-minute test that proves it worked.
If a reminder app has ever stayed silent at 8:00 and then shown you three late notifications at once, your phone did that, not your memory. Android lets phones pause apps that look idle, and some brands go further than others.
Alarm clocks are exempt because they schedule themselves a particular way. A medication reminder should use the same mechanism (Pillbean does), and you can check whether yours does.
Why reminders go quiet
Three switches decide whether a reminder rings on time. Two of them belong to the phone maker, not to Android.
- Battery optimisation
- Android’s own switch. When it is on, an app can be held back until you next open it.
- Brand battery savers
- Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus and others add their own lists of apps to put to sleep. Android cannot see these, so no app can tick them off for you.
- Auto-start
- On Xiaomi and some other phones, an app is not allowed to wake up on its own after a restart until you say so.
The switch on your phone
Pick your phone. The names move a little between versions; look for the same words.
Samsung
- Open Settings › Apps and pick your reminder app.
- Tap Battery and choose Unrestricted.
- Go back to Settings › Battery › Background usage limits.
- Make sure the app is not under Sleeping apps or Deep sleeping apps. Add it to Never sleeping apps.
Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO
- Open Settings › Apps › Manage apps and pick your reminder app.
- Turn Autostart on.
- Tap Battery saver and choose No restrictions. It is a separate switch, and you need both.
- Under Other permissions, allow Show on Lock screen.
OnePlus and OPPO
- Open Settings › Apps › App management and pick your reminder app.
- Tap Battery usage.
- Allow background activity, and set it to Don’t optimise.
Google Pixel
- Open Settings › Apps and pick your reminder app.
- Tap App battery usage and choose Unrestricted.
- Check Alarms & reminders is allowed under Special app access.
Test it tonight
- Set a reminder for two minutes from now.
- Lock the phone, plug it in, and put it face down.
- If it rings on the minute, you are done. If it arrives late or not at all, one of the switches above is still on.
Pillbean has this test built in: the 60-second self-test sets a real alarm through the same path your doses use, and writes down whether it RANG ON TIME.
Get a reminder that rings
Free on Google Play. No account.
